


All So Quiet

by hariboo



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-24
Updated: 2011-07-24
Packaged: 2017-10-21 17:37:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/227811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hariboo/pseuds/hariboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luna and Harry in a quiet moment a few weeks after the war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All So Quiet

**Author's Note:**

> written for anythingbutgrey's '[open at the close' ficathon](http://anythingbutgrey.livejournal.com/797887.html).

_i think that somehow, somewhere inside of us,  
we must be similar, if not the same._

  
It's two weeks after the Battle of Hogwarts as it's being known that Luna sees Harry again. Of course she's seen him before this: at the Weasley's, tired and pale; on the cover of The Prophet, tired and paler; and once she saw him back at the school when he came to help with the rebuilding and clean up. She remembers how he looked up at the broken towers, cracked stones, and how his eyes watered at the spots bodies used to lay lifeless and grey. She remembers thinking how he compared to the memories of the ghosts both present and gone. He had looked less solid.

So in ways, she's seen him since that day a story ended and she helped him hide away, but the way she sees him now she finally feels like she's seeing him anew.

Before it was Harry, full of shadows and anger and sadness shimmering under his skin like a shield, and now she see Harry whose shadows are lighter and the anger and sadness are covered by peace and light. He's walking the edge of the Weasley's property that's twelve jumps and four twirls from where hers and Daddy's begins.

The sunlight is casting a soft glare off his glasses and the wind is making his hair messier than usual and he's upside down.

He stops and falls to the tall grass, swallowed by the green and yellow. She can feel the wind carry his relief.

There's the brief thought to leave him be but it's been so long since she's seen Harry. She wonders how his face had changed.

"Hi, Harry! Are you reading the clouds today?" She calls out, dropping herself from the tree she had been reading in. The purple of her tights shine through the grass stains and dirt as she brushes herself off.

Harry sits up, startled, from where he was lying down and blinks at her.

"Luna, hi." His throat works and Luna studies the way his Adam's apple bobs under the skin, only to watch him clear his throat again--she know it's sign of nervousness when people do that, however she doesn't know why Harry is nervous. Then again, Harry always does seem on the edge of apologising for everything he does. "Sorry, I didn't you see there."

Ah! Just on time.

"It's quiet all right, Harry. I was reading in the trees."

She looks up from the unfamiliar skin into the familiar pair of green eyes behind his glinting glasses. They crinkle at the corners behind their thin, translucent shields. It's not mean, the way his eyes smile, but the way Harry looks at her is never mean.

"Of course you were." He stands, his hands brushing against his jeans, and then he tucks them into the pockets where she see his wand sticking out of the right one.

Luna wonders why everyone tucks their wands in their trouser pockets or robes. Don't they worry that the wands will get lost or slip away. It's why she carries hers tucked in her ear. That way she can feel the wood press against her skin letting her know it's always with her.

"Anything interesting?" Harry asks, rolling back on his heels.

He's asking what she's reading and she can tell: he's doing it to be polite. Harry is always so polite. She smiles.

"I interrupted your quiet, Harry. I'm sorry! But it was the first time I've seen you look like Harry again."

His eyes crinkle again -- never mean -- and he smiles back. "It's okay, Luna, I didn't mind, just wasn't expecting company." He trails off, tilts his head and his lips twist, "Wait, but you have seen me since..." The muscles in his neck are working too hard again and his eyes aren't mean but the shadows are a little stronger than they were before.

Luna sees her mistake and quickly moves to turn it around.

"Yes, but it's been a while since you've been just Harry, hasn't it?"

He sighs, it's heavy and she's standing close enough to feel the edges of it against her nose. "It's been a very busy two weeks. I was with the Weasleys but I just needed--"

"Your quiet."

She sees the line of his shoulders soften.

"I reckon, yes."

"Very well then." She unrolls her Quibbler and drops to the ground, her legs folding under her like a dancer's would or a reed who bends in the wind.

"Luna?" His hands uncurl from his pockets and his thumbs hook on the loops on his jeans.

She looks up at him, squinting at the way the sun shines off his glasses and thinks briefly that he's too old for seventeen, but doesn't say this. Luna's learned that sometimes people aren't ready for the basic truths about themselves. So she shifts and spreads her Quibbler open over her legs to the page she left off on in the tree.

"Your quiet, you can have it back. Unless... are you any good at runes?"

Harry shakes his head but sits back down, "No, not particularly."

Luna nods, "That's okay. Would you like me to teach you?"

His face is still and then his cheeks flush. It causes a reaction in the rest of his face: his lips thin into a smile and the shadows in his eyes are almost gone. "Sure, I'd like that Luna." He settles at her side and is careful not to have the edges of his knees brush hers. It's so very Harry. Always so polite. She sets the Quibbler between them, flatting the worn pages with her hands but the edges still curl up a little.

Harry's head bends a little towards her and she stare unblinkingly into his green eyes.

"You know Harry, I think you'll be quiet apt at runes. You have the disposition needed."

His lips curl like the pages of her Quibbler and he moves closer to get a better look at the images as she starts to explain how the rune puzzle works.

His jean covered knees graze her bare ones.


End file.
